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Councilor David Flaherty's Ever Widening Credibility Gap

City Councilor David Flaherty's recent statements on the MassLive website cast doubt about his credibility.

Update: 5:30 pm: Councilor made some comments regarding what he knew about the potential for lawsuits with city unions that could prove to be very revealing. Read more here.

Councilor David Flaherty and the other Finance Committee members almost got the city sued. They failed to consider that a number of their recommended budget cuts would have likely violated the city's contractual obligations to some of the city's unions. If the cuts had passed, and they nearly did, it would have opened the city up to unfair labor practices and lawsuits by some of the various unions in the city that represent about 85% of its workforce.

Apparently, the committee didn't even bother to take the basic step of consulting with the mayor, the law department, or any of the city's department heads to consider the impacts of their cuts. How was such a bush league mistake made? We can only wonder. Thankfully, the mayor was able to make a very strong case for his original budget at the June 19th city council meeting and put the kibosh on the ill-advised cuts.

But then, in comments made on the MassLive website on Saturday, Flaherty had the gall to deflect his own incompetence by publicly attacking the mayor, calling him "really good at hiding things and deferring blame onto others." No other city councilor or public official is accusing the mayor of acting in bad faith or is leveling bizarre allegations of deceitfulness against him. In fact, Councilor John Beltrandi, who originally backed Flaherty's budget cuts with his vote on the finance committee, reversed course after hearing from the mayor at last week's meeting and voted to support the mayor's budget.

Then, in the same MassLive comment, Flaherty again exhibits his penchant for dreaming up plots against him when he alleged, with zero evidence, that Westfield's school administrators "ordered" school department personnel to attend the June 19th meeting. He also makes the laughable assertion that the Westfield Education Association, the organization that represents the teachers, did the same, as if the democratic institutions of unions were run like some kind of Stalinist dictatorship with the power to order members around like foot soldiers.

Flaherty's wildest claims, of course, have been about the city's long-term financial health. In a recent post on the Westfield MassLive forum, his preferred medium for publishing his missives, he said Westfield's finances "are a real mess" and that long-term, "we're now in the 'mathematically impossible' position."

Is it possible that Flaherty has some kind of special knowledge and insight these rating agencies don't? What if, just maybe, he is right? So we recently asked Flaherty to produce a spreadsheet with all his data, calculations, and assumptions that could be verified by an independent expert. As we expected, he refused, insisting that we need to "do our own homework." Coming from a man who fancies himself as a champion of open information and the free exchange of ideas, this strikes us as more than just a little fishy.

And for all the drama over this year's budget and dire warnings by Flaherty unless we lop $1.5 million off the budget (he originally called for $2.2 million in cuts), it turns out our short-term Moody's rating is a MIG 1, the highest quality. Again, what makes Flaherty more qualified to determine the fiscal health of Westfield than these rating agencies?

So, in our view, it's extremely improbable Councilor Flaherty is right about the city's financial situation. Couple this with his long history of making other highly unsubstantiated claims, baseless accusations, and his constant reading of evil intentions into the harmless actions of others, a picture of a man who does not reason very well in the macroscopic plane of worldly matters starts to come into clear focus. We'll be uncovering more evidence of his inappropriate, counterproductive—and ultimately harmful—behavior patterns in the coming weeks and months as they come to light. Stay tuned.

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